The Crossroad
by A Sirius Crush On Moony
Summary: It starts off as a friendship, but it soon becomes apparent to both Regulus and James that they are falling in love with each other. Regulus/James slash


**I don't know why I decided to write this pairing because I'm not really a fan. I'm a Sirius/Regulus and James/Lily shipper, but I really had to. I guess I like Reg/James a bit XD**

* * *

><p><span><strong>THE CROSSROAD<strong>

Being in love with Regulus was a bad, bad thing. It went against everything he knew and valued, but at the same time was impossible to stop. Love is inevitable. Even if it's wrong.

* * *

><p>James Potter was deeply and madly in love with Lily Evans. There was no question about that. He spent half his day going on about her to Remus, Sirius and Peter, and the other half following her around and asking her out relentlessly.<p>

He knew that everybody was fed up with him now, and he was getting slightly fed up with them getting fed up with him. So what if he was annoyingly in unrequited love?

He sat in one of the comfy red sofas in the Gryffindor Common Room, resting the right side of his face on his arm, which was leaning on the arm of the sofa. He was staring across the room at Lily, who was laughing with her friends and paying him no attention at all.

"You're drooling," Sirius said from beside him, making him jump.

James turned to face his best friend and scowled. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, you stupid mutt."

Sirius grinned and raised his eyebrows. "I'm not the one who's drooling, mate."

"You make a fair point," James admitted, wiping the drool from his chin in a very undignified way. He glanced back at Lily and sighed.

"If you're about to moan about how much you love her, then cough or something to give me a warning, so I can sneak off," Sirius said, after following James's line of sight to the red head.

James coughed, and kept his eyes on Lily as Sirius stood up and shuffled quietly out of the room. He didn't like to admit that it hurt him that his best friend wasn't even supportive and understanding of James's pain regarding Lily. He tore his eyes away from her and stood up, making his way up to his dormitory.

When he opened the door, he spotted Remus and Peter sitting in the middle of the carpet playing a game of Exploding Snap. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening and smiled at James.

"Hey James," Remus said, looking back at Peter and nodding at him as a signal for him to continue the game. James stepped towards them and dropped down onto the floor next to him.

"Lily wasn't even-" James started.

"-Please don't talk about Lily," Peter pleaded with a desperate look on his face.

"Why not?" James asked in annoyance.

"Because," Remus said, his attention still on the game and not on James. "We love you and all, but she's all you ever talk about. I'm sorry."

James stood up. "Well, _I'm _sorry that my 'friends' are all idiots that don't care!" he said angrily, sweeping out of the room before they could respond.

He was fuming. He listened to every little complaint and problem _they_ had and they didn't have the decency to return the favour. He walked wherever his feet would take him, with no real direction. He just wanted to walk to take his mind off of things.

He wondered if any of his friends had ever been in love. Peter probably hadn't. He doubted Sirius had, seeing as he had a new girl every week and James didn't think it was possible for him to have loved any of them. Remus had never had a girlfriend, so he didn't think he had been in love either.

They didn't know what it felt like to be in love. They didn't know the way it completely took over his mind, and that in James's case it was so much worse because Lily didn't love him back. They didn't know he was depending on his best friends to help him through these things because Lily was so gorgeous.

A goofy grin appeared on his face as he thought of Lily. She was so beautiful, he mused. The way her eyes shone when she was excited and the way her nose scrunched up when she was smiling. The way her bright red hair fell over her face and the way the freckles dotted her face. He loved the way she smelled, and the way she could brighten up his day no matter what.

He frowned again, realising his mind was getting off topic. He was supposed to be angry. It was pitch black outside, so when he glanced at the window he could see his reflection as though it was a mirror. He didn't like the subtlety of the frown on his face. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to make his frown seem more pronounced.

"Get into an argument with your reflection or something?" asked someone, making James jump. His cheeks went red as he realised someone had seen him making faces at himself in the window. When he turned to see who had spoken, he recognised Sirius's little brother, Regulus Black.

"No, I was practicing my frown," he replied matter-of-factly, trying to keep at least _some_ of his Gryffindor pride. He felt himself frowning again when he saw Regulus trying not to laugh. "What's so funny, Black?" James asked.

"Who practices frowning in the window?" Regulus asked, raising his eyebrows. "I have to say, you Gryffindors are a weird bunch."

"Hey!" James said, standing up straight. "Us Gryffindors are much more normal than you Slytherins."

"Not a chance," Regulus said, leaning back against the window sill. James realised how alike Regulus and Sirius were in their movements. "You're not as weird as Hufflepuffs though, I'll give you that."

James thought about this for a second and smiled a little. "Yeah, even you lot are better than Hufflepuff."

"At least we agree on something," Regulus said, smiling back.

"I'm sure we both agree that Sirius is an idiot," James said, feeling a pang of guilt for talking about his best friend behind his back.

Regulus snorted and nodded. "You got that right. And get this, Muggles say you need to look _up_ to your older brothers. They say you need to aspire to be like them. What a load of crap."

"It's not just Muggles who say that," James said. "But anyone who aspires to be like Sirius must be crazy."

They laughed and James imagined Sirius walking around Hogwarts with a little follower dressing up like him and acting like him. James fell into another fit of laughter at this thought, which sent Regulus into a fit of laughter of his own.

"Oh Merlin," James breathed, clutching at his side. "I just had this image in my mind."

"Do I want to know?" Regulus replied, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Oh Merlin, now I'm imagining Sirius walking around school naked with a little loyal first year following him naked and they are winking at the girls and oh Merlin Merlin Merlin!"

"Ewww, that's not an image I want in my head," Regulus said, bursting out in laughter once more. "Potter, you're crude. Imagine imagining a naked first year."

"Imagine imagining a naked Sirius!" James said.

They stared at each other for a moment, and fell into fits of laughter again. This laughter session lasted about a minute or so before they both finally calmed down.

James reached up to his face to massage his cheeks which were aching from smiling so much. He glanced at Regulus, who was rubbing his own cheeks.

"You're alright, you know," James said, smiling fondly at the Slytherin. "Who would have known that Sirius's little brother is not too bad?"

Regulus pursed his lips. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?" he asked.

"I guess it was," James replied.

"Well, that was the dumbest compliment I ever heard. Even Sirius could have come up with something better than that."

The conversation stopped as the two of them thought about Sirius coming up with a good compliment, and needless to say, it wasn't long before they were both falling about in stitches of laughter.

* * *

><p>"Where have <em>you<em> been?" Sirius asked James as he walked back into the dormitory again that night. James shrugged, his annoyance with his friends rushing back to him.

"I'm sorry," Remus said, looking sincere. "I never meant to upset you earlier."

"Me neither," Peter said, stuffing his face with chocolate. James noticed Remus's eyes following Peter's chocolate bar. He looked like a cat ready to pounce.

"I was talking to your brother, Sirius."

Sirius stared and grimaced. "What a fun conversation that must have been."

James smiled, remembering back to their conversation. "It was," he said. "I actually had a lot of fun."

Now all three of his friends were looking at him weirdly. James sighed and rolled his eyes. "What? I can't get along with _one_ Slytherin without you guys judging me for it."

"I find it pretty weird that my best mate and idiot brother are now best buddies, yeah," Sirius said, looking disturbed. "What spell did he cast on you to make you act like this."

"None," James said. "And he's not my best buddy," he muttered, blushing slightly at the accusation.

"Why's he blushing?" Remus asked, smirking. James placed his hands on his cheeks, feeling how hot they had become.

"Because it astounds me that Sirius would think I would be _best buddies_ with his brother," James lied. He wasn't quite sure why he had been blushing.

"Nah, you were probably talking to him about Lily."

James thought about this. He hadn't talked about Lily even once to Regulus, which was strange because he even talked about Lily to random strangers. Come to think of it, he hadn't even _thought_ of Lily the entire time he was talking to Regulus.

"Anyways," he said, absent-mindedly. "I'm off to bed now. Goodnight."

"Night," his friends chimed as James disappeared behind the curtains to his bed. He decided to lie down fully clothed and think.

All he could think about was talking to Regulus. The way the Slytherin made him smile and laugh like not even his best friends could. The way Regulus made him forget about Lily like nobody else could. The way he let his guard down completely with a _Slytherin_, of all people.

James decided that Regulus was a very good influence on him, and that maybe Sirius's accusation could come true. He could see a great friendship blooming with Regulus, and decided that tomorrow morning he would try to make this friendship grow.

With that thought, he smiled and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.

**###**


End file.
